Publications by Year: 2008

Mochlos is an important, multi-period island settlement in eastern Crete (just east of the Bay of Mirabello) famous primarily for its remarkable Pre-palatial tombs excavated in 1908 by Richard Seager. Since 1989, the joint Greek-American project of renewed excavations under Jeffrey Soles and Costis Davaras has not only reinvestigated and re-evaluated those tombs, but paid far greater attention to the hitherto largely neglected, but very informative, later life of the settlement. Some volumes, dealing with the Neopalatial settlement, have already appeared as part of the projected multi-volume publication of the site. The subject of the latest volume in the Mochlos monograph series is the sites of the LM III periods, which consist of houses within the settlement and two cemeteries—the main one at Limenaria across from the modern village of Mochlos and a smaller cemetery near the earlier Artisans' Quarter. As with the preceding Mochlos publications, this volume will be accompanied by two others covering the LM III pottery and small finds, respectively, which will help flesh out the framework of sites presented here.

Beginning in 1989 (as a result of the discovery of the later burials) ten houses were excavated in the settlement, which were re-occupied between the LM III/LM IIIA1 and LM IIIB periods. These dwellings occupy a broad band approximately 100 m wide across the site, which was much further back from the coastline than the Neopalatial settlement. The houses range from one- to two-room structures, some with cook sheds and some with yards, to the sizable House A (8.11 m by 13.70 m on the exterior, with eight rooms and two exterior areas).

The LM III occupation differed from that of the preceding Neopalatial period (when the site was at its acme) in a number of important ways: there was a much smaller population that occupied a much smaller area of the site; the placement of the dwellings was haphazard and governed by previous architecture, which was re-used by all the LM III occupants; all the buildings were only one storey; and, to judge from the finds, there seems to have been a gradual abandonment of the site (7–9).

Thirty-one tombs in total were excavated in the two cemeteries, producing finds that are contemporary with the two settlement phases. The twenty-six chamber tombs, two deep pit-tombs and three smaller pit-tombs varied widely in size, construction type, and location, but also regarding the type of burial container, manner of burial, and grave goods. These burials, although remarkably diverse, are grouped into three sets that roughly correspond to the house size groupings, reinforcing the evidence for social ranking from the settlement and providing more detailed information about individual status and identity. Correlating the osteological information with the other burial evidence, the excavators are able to suggest further some hypotheses about the ritual practices and beliefs of the population who lived at Mochlos in LM III. For example, the authors give a fairly detailed account of burial ritual, and how it may have differed based on the individual, burial container, and tomb type. Moreover, the portable objects have led the excavators to suggest that the inhabitants believed that the deceased experienced three different stages of existence in the afterlife (196).

Presenting evidence from both the settlement and its corresponding cemeteries allows the excavators to posit a hypothetical reconstruction of social structure, individual status and identity, and even ethnicity. The settlement remains provide clear evidence for a hierarchical social ranking system, in particular the distinction between House A and the dwellings in the rest of the settlement. House A was more elaborate with respect to location, size, architecture, construction material and technique, and the portable finds suggest connections with Palaikastro, Gournia, Knossos, and even the Levant. The other houses had differences among them, but for the most part only with respect to their size and layout...

The present volume publishes some of the finds and results of the excavations conducted by Professor N. Stampolidis of the University of Crete in the Early Iron Age necropolis of Orthi Petra in Eleutherna, Crete. The necropolis, which is a palimpsest of intensive human activity, the denser and most legible lines of which pertain to the 9th – 6th centuries BC, lies on the originally rather steep, but now terraced, west slopes of the hill of Prines, 20-40m above the Chalopota stream. Its layout, including the monuments and their date, as well as the rites performed have been discussed by Stampolidis on several occasions. Although the necropolis has produced rich and varied remains, pottery is by far the most copiously represented class. This is, however, hardly surprising, given the well-known, relentless indestructibility of ceramics, which sharply contrasts with the ephemeral nature of their primary function.

The present volume is an analysis of a large corpus of ceramic material recovered from the neighbouring trenches A1 and K1, which are located in the central part of the excavated section of the necropolis. The material in question was found in the interior and immediate exterior of a chamber tomb called tomb A1K1, which housed cremation urns and burial offerings. Very few vases were also found inside or directly next to monument A1K1, which was partly overlying the tomb. Because of the scale and variety of the ceramic and other material it yielded and its importance for the archaeology of Early Iron Age Crete, the Aegean and the Mediterranean, a series of publication were planned for this particular context.

The demands of this work, however, and the various other commitments of the contributors led the editor to the decision to issue the publications in question individually. The present study of the pottery is the second of the volumes in this series, whereas the first volume, which is currently in preparation, includes a detailed catalogue of the rich and varied finds recovered - including the ceramic vessels discussed here – and studies the location of the tomb and monument within the necropolis, as well as their excavation and architecture. Furthermore, it offers an account of the conservation of the two structures following the excavation. A third volume based on the other classes of finds and the burial customs has also been planned, whereas a fourth volume regarding the physical anthropological material recovered has already appeared.

Link to a review of the work in the American Journal of Archaeology

Link to a review of the work in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Exceptional stratigraphical data inside the cave and dozens of C14 dates have led to the succession of distinct cultural phases, dated from the Middle/ Early Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Helladic (2nd mill B.C.), when the cave was abandoned. The cave is of crucial importance for the study of the Mesolithic/ Early Neolithic interface. The Middle and Late Neolithic occupations are represented by numerous symbolic objects such as hundreds of figurines indicating the important role of the cave in ritual activities.

Τhe first volume comprises the stratigraphy, analysis of the pottery of Neolithic and Bronze Age, (research period 1994-2000), as well as geomorphology of Kopais area, archaeobotanical remains, obsidian artefacts and pottery chemical analysis.

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In 1970 M. van Loon, who excavated in Mureybet during 1964-1965, offered J. Cauvin to continue this project before the Euphrates Valley flooded. His offer was accepted and the new series of excavations, conducted by J. Cauvin and his team, lasted from 1971 through 1974. The two volumes of Mureybet final site report, not to mention the numerous papers published in previous years, contain a plethora of information as regards these excavations. Indeed, the field operation saved for future generations a crucial archaeological record and provided a clear idea, if we consider the rather small excavation area relatively to the size of the mound, of what was lost under the rising waters of the Tabqa Dam.
The first volume opens with In Memoriam of J. Cauvin written by M. Molist who notes the historical role J. Cauvin and his team played in creating the Institut de Préhistoire Orientale, and is followed by a brief chapter placing the formative years of the project in their historical context.
The first volume records the essential aspects such as the radiocarbon chronology (J. Evin and D. Stordeur), followed by the stratigraphy and architecture (D. Stordeur and J.J. Ibáñez), the fireplaces (M. Molist), archaeobotanical and faunal remains (G. Willcox, L. Gourichon and D. Helmer), a suite of reports on the lithic industries (coordinated and partly written by M.-C. Cauvin with contributions by F. Abbès, J.E. Sanchez Priego, J.E. Gonzales Urquijo, J.J. Ibáñez and A. Rodriguez Rodriguez). The second volume provides chapters on the bone industry (D. Stordeur and R. Christidou), the ground stone industry, its typology and use (M.-C. Nierlé and M. Lebreton), body decorations (C. Maréchal and H. Alarashi), the figurines and other small objects (D. Stordeur and M. Lebreton), and closes with the conclusions that are an effective summary of the available evidence, by J.J. Ibáñez in French, English and Arabic. A detailed list of references closes this volume and supplies the readers with a full list of papers published in the past where various aspects of the Mureybet project were reported or discussed.

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This is the final report on the eleven seasons of excavations at Chogha Mish. In addition to the materials and records from Chogha Mish, Dr. Abbas Alizadeh uses the data available from the excavations of the neighboring sites of Chogha Bonut and Boneh Fazl Ali to augment his reconstruction of Susiana prehistoric development. Together, these three sites cover a long period from ca. 7200 to 500 B.C.

While most researchers see the fourth millennium as a pivotal period in the development of state organizations in southwestern Iran as a result of intra-regional competition between various local polities, Alizadeh traces the onset of the conflict of interest between the settled agricultural communities of the lowlands and mobile pastoralists of the highlands to the fifth millennium b.c. In doing so, Alizadeh considers a much more substantial role for the ancient mobile pastoralists of the region, placing Chogha Mish in a much wider regional context and arguing that at the beginning of the fifth millennium b.c, as the local elite were rapidly developing, lowland Susiana shifted its orientation from Mesopotamia to highland Iran, where most of the material resources are located. He attributes this shift to the development of mobile pastoralism in highland Iran and considers the ancient mobile pastoralists as the agents of contact between the highlands and the lowlands.

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Fieldwork in the village of Phlamoudhi, Cyprus from 1970-1973 by the Columbia University Expedition to Phlamoudhi recorded the only systematically excavated evidence for Middle to Late Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement north of the Kyrenia Mountains. Halted by the war of 1974 that divided the island, most of the discoveries in Phlamoudhi remained unpublished until 2000 when the Phlamoudhi Archaeological Project began the systematic study, analysis, and publication of the material. This book's chapters cover the two main excavated sites, the hilltop site of Vounari and the larger settlement at Melissa; the region's patterns of settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages and the Hellenistic through Medieval periods; and the geology and palaeobotany of the region. Chapters with perspectives on the excavations by original team members, the history of work in the area, and an overview of archaeology on Cyprus before and after the war place the fieldwork in historical perspective. This volume derives from papers at a symposium that was held together with an exhibition of the finds from Phlamoudhi in 2005.

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Lord William Taylour's excavations at Ayios Stephanos in 1959-77 investigated a port that relied on trade, fishing and metallurgy. It lay just north of the main Minoan east-west trade route via Kythera and exported the rare stone lapis lacedaemonius to Cretan workshops. As a Linear A inscription shows, the site illuminates the diffusion of Minoan culture to the mainland. Ayios Stephanos yielded a stratified pottery sequence from EH I to LH IIIC, with a break at the end of the Early Bronze Age. Study of this sequence has vastly improved our knowledge of the chronology, clarifying Cretan relations with the mainland. There were three phases of EH. After disastrous fires, rectangular buildings replaced the MH I apsidal dwellings, and the street plan came to resemble Minoan prototypes. The pottery illuminates the invention of Mycenaen ceramics. In line with the fortunes of Crete, the site declined in LH IIA, traded with Knossos in LH IIIA1, and declined again. It briefly revived in LH IIIC Early, probably following an influx of refugees. Then it was abandoned, perhaps after a massacre. Ayios Stephanos was reoccupied in c. 1270 AD, when a building with a walled yard and stables was erected to guard the approach to Skala along the River Vasilopotamos. This phase fills a gap in our knowledge, since no site of this period has been excavated south of Corinth. After 1321 a hostile raid plunged the site into oblivion. This publication studies the architecture and stratigraphy, the burials, the Medieval period, the pottery and small finds, the human and other organic remains, the settlement pattern and the regional and historical context. Numerous figures and plates document the results. Appendices containing techinical analyses, stratigraphic tables and concordances are on an accompanying CD.

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